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William Kaplan (Earth-616)
Asgardian, Thor Jr., Warlock Boy, Magic Lad, Wanda Junior, Billy Maximoff | Identity = Secret | Affiliation = , ; formerly , | Relatives = Jeff Kaplan (father); Rebecca Kaplan (mother); Two unnamed younger Kaplan brothers; Thomas Shepherd (reincarnated brother); Teddy Altman (fiancé) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Avengers Island; formerly Bishop Publishing, New York City, New York | Gender = Male | Height = 5'8" | Weight = 155 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Black | UnusualFeatures = | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Engaged | Occupation = Student, Adventurer | Education = Still in unknown high school | Origin = Magician and mutant | PlaceOfBirth = New York City, New York State | Creators = Allan Heinberg; Jim Cheung | First = | HistoryText = Origin Billy Kaplan was the eldest of three sons born to Reform Jews Jeff Kaplan, a cardiologist, and Rebecca Kaplan, a psychologist. Billy had trouble with bullies in school due to his sexuality and fanboyness. Once while sitting in front of Avengers Mansion, he briefly met the Scarlet Witch, his favorite Avenger. She gave him some words of encouragement and told him that he "could take care of himself". Billy took her advice and stood up to his bully, John Kesler. Unfortunately, Billy's electrokinetic powers emerged for the first time and nearly killed Kesler. Young Avengers As he began to use his powers more and more, he sought out the Scarlet Witch for help, only to find out that the Avengers had disbanded. However, Billy was one of the people listed in the Avengers Fail-Safe Program compiled by the Vision to be used to form a new team of superheroes in the event of the destruction or disbanding of the Avengers. Iron Lad, a younger version of Kang the Conqueror, found Billy using the Vision’s Fail-Safe Program and requested his help in preventing his future self from returning him to the future. Billy joined the Young Avengers, and, styling himself after Thor, adopted the super-hero identity of the Asgardian. He began dating his teammate Hulkling not long after. After losing Iron Lad and recruiting Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang, the girls made the suggestion that Billy change his code-name from Asgardian to Wiccan and Billy agreed. Billy tried to tell his parents that he was an aspiring superhero, but they misread his intentions and assumed that he was revealing his relationship with Teddy. Though his parents thought Teddy would make an excellent son-in-law, they were unaware that Billy was a practicing witch, dating a shapeshifter. The nature of his heroic activities and the danger associated with them, became apparent when the Super Skrull nearly destroyed the Kaplan's upper west side home in his attempt to kidnap Hulkling. The altercation resulted in the death of Teddy's mother. Not long after Hulkling was captured by the Kree Sentries, Wiccan and the other Young Avengers became desperate to rescue him. To locate reinforcements, the Vision, recommended using the Avengers Fail-Safe Program, which was the same program Iron Lad had used to locate the original Young Avengers. The team went to a high security detention facility for superpowered juvenile offenders to locate him. While there, they found Tommy Shepherd being held, and released him from his cell. Stature noted that Tommy and Bill could be twins. The breakout did not go unnoticed, and the team ran into the armed officers of the facility. Tommy helped them to save Hulkling by fighting off both Skrull and Kree forces, afterwards officially joining the Young Avengers under the name "Speed". Civil War During the Civil War, S.H.I.E.L.D. arrested the Young Avengers. However, Falcon and Captain America intercepted the S.H.I.E.L.D bus which was transporting the prisoners, and Wiccan teleported the team out of the situation, into the Resistance Fighters base of operations. When the Runaways tried to stay out of the conflict, they barely managed to escape from the government forces. Hearing of this development in the news, the Young Avengers decided to help the Runaways even though Captain America vetoed the plan. Wiccan used his magic to locate and teleport to the Runaways. However, the Runaways believed that the Young Avengers had come to capture them and a fight ensued until Patriot succeeded in convincing Nico Minoru to stop the hostilities. The two teams were later attacked by Marvel Boy, who captured Wiccan, Karolina, and Hulkling, and almost killed Xavin. The young heroes became the prisoners of the Warden, who proceeded to practice vivisection on the unconscious Teddy. The boys were rescued by Xavin, whose Skrull physiology allowed him to recover from Noh-Varr's attack. Billy came close to killing the Warden, but Teddy stopped him. Wiccan was among the Secret Avengers who took part in the first major battle of the Civil War, and was one of the first two casualties. Tony Stark and Peter Parker realized that the two rebels with teleportation powers needed to be incapacitated to prevent an escape from the ambush. Wiccan and Cloak were both shot with tranquilizer darts and rendered unconscious. This attack on two of his youngest followers infuriated Captain America. A violent battle ensued, by the end of which Goliath was dead, slain by the cyborg clone of Thor. Most of the Anti-Registration group escaped, but Wiccan was left behind and captured by the Pro-Registration side. Billy and the other imprisoned Anti-Registration heroes were eventually freed in a raid led by Captain America. Teddy's shape-shifting ability played a pivotal role in Captain America's plan allowing him to impersonate Yellowjacket in order to free the imprisoned heroes of Prison 42. ]] Searching for the Scarlet Witch When Wiccan decided to begin searching for the Scarlet Witch, Tommy agreed to joined him. The pair searched through Genosha and Wundagore in Transia before finally encountering Master Pandemonium in Cresskill, New Jersey at a former residence of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision. Master Pandemonium offered some information, but did not know the current whereabouts of the Scarlet Witch. Secret Invasion When the Skrulls invaded Earth, Wiccan joined the other Young Avengers and Runaways on the front-lines of the battle. Wiccan and Speed saved Hulkling from execution and later assisted Xavin to again rescue Hulkling. Dark Reign and The Siege Wiccan gathered the Young Avengers together at the Avengers Mansion to respond to wave of supernatural chaos caused by Chthon. The team was turned to stone by Chthon's magic, except for Vision and Stature, who arrived too late. Doctor Strange, the former Sorcerer Supreme, visited Wiccan to discuss his potential candidacy and ability to assume the position as the new Sorcerer Supreme. When the Hood found Strange and engaged him in magical combat, Wiccan aided him, contrary to Strange's orders to flee. Wiccan and Strange teleported to the New Avengers seeking help. Wiccan along with the other Young Avengers helped rescue the fallen from Asgard during the Siege. Together, he and Hulkling also battled the Wrecking Crew. Children's Crusade After Wiccan powers overloaded during a battle with the Sons of the Serpent, the Avengers decided to keep him under observation. Hulkling and the other Young Avengers broke Wiccan out of holding and began the search for the Scarlet Witch. Accompanied by Magneto and Quicksilver, the team traveled to Transia and then to Latveria before discovering a depowered and amnesiac Wanda engaged to Doctor Doom. The rediscovery of Wanda did not go unnoticed though, as the Avengers soon arrived on the scene. A battle with Doom's Doombot army soon broken out and was only stopped by the arrival of Iron Lad. Iron Lad teleported the Young Avengers and Wanda into the time-stream. They all went into the past, and met the reanimated Jack of Hearts, who was about to explode. After that Wanda remembered who she is, regained her powers and returned herself, the Young Avengers and Scott Lang into the present. She then finally confirmed that Billy and Tommy are indeed her reincarnated sons. Wanda's increased powers were revealed to be the result of her gaining a connection to the life force itself. A ritual intended to undo the Decimation was interrupted by Patriot, leading to the powers being transferred to Doctor Doom. He intended to usher the world into utopia, a utopia in which he would rule. The Avengers and X-Men teamed up to defeat him, in the process, Stature was killed by Doom, and the villain escaped after losing his powers when they overloaded. Iron Lad proposed to save Stature through the time-stream but Vision refused, ending with both of them battling each other and Iron Lad destroying Vision and then taking off to the time-stream, even after Wiccan warned that this was the moment in time where he became Kang the Conqueror. In the aftermath of the battles, the Young Avengers disbanded and stayed in low profile during the major events that transpired in the world (the Spider-Island infestation, the X-Men's Schism and the resurrection of the Human Torch). Wiccan fell into a severe state of depression, but Hulkling brought him out of it by proposing to him. However, their moment of joy was interrupted by Ms. Marvel who called them to the Avengers Mansion. After a few words from Captain America all the remaining Young Avengers were officially named as full-fledged Avengers. Return to Heroics For a period of time, Wiccan and Hulkling retired from being super-heroes. However, they were unexpectedly brought back into the fray when Wiccan, in an attempt to patch an argument with Hulkling, accidentally let an interdimensional parasite called Mother masquerading as Hulkling's mother into their world. The parasite's arrival had been a consequence of Loki's manipulations, who wanted to subsequently pose as an ally to Billy and ultimately control him, as Wiccan was destined to become the omnipotent Demiurge. Unaware of the full extent of Loki's intentions, Wiccan and Billy allied themselves with the trickster to escape Mother. However, Loki betrayed Mother, and interfered with the spell, causing it to tie it Wiccan, Hulkling and himself and bring back their dead parents under Mother's influence. They were soon joined by other young heroes, who became infected by the link of the spell, leading to the reformation of the Young Avengers. When they were cornered in Central Park by their resurrected parents and an army of mind-controlled adults only they could see, Loki convinced Wiccan to lend him his power for ten minutes to save them all with his better skill at magic than Wiccan. As soon as Loki was given Billy's powers, he teleported away, leavig the other young heroes to their deaths. Loki ultimately decided to return and help the Young Avengers fend off the Mother's army and escape. Mother faded away after the Young Avengers escaped. Loki explained they couldn't go back to any place their parents were or had died (in the case of any deceased parent brought back by Mother) or Mother would return, as her powers were distance based. The young heroes decided to stay together and travel through the universe. In the next three months, Loki trained Billy to prepare him to fight Mother, with the ulterior motive of gaining his trust. The Young Avengers were joined by Prodigy, who informed them Speed had been kidnapped by a strange entity dressed as Patriot. The Young Avengers chased the entity through the Multiverse, and were brought to Mother's Dimension. They escaped, but accidentally left Prodigy and Hulkling behind. Using numerous evil alternate version of themselves as a distraction, the Young Avengers distracted Mother and save Hulkling and Prodigy. Back to Earth-616, Hulkling left the team to figure out if he really loved Wiccan or it was merely his reality-warping power. An ally of Mother, Leah, tricked Hulkling into returning to New York City, allowing Mother to come back, and threaten to unleash all of the evil version of the Young Avengers to the world. Since Billy was still too weak to end the spell which had brought Mother, Loki suggested that he would be able to do it if his body was older, thus making Wiccan age him into a young adult. Unfortunately, Loki's powers didn't remain. The trickster had to resort to a second plan, to turn Wiccan temporarily into the Demiurge. Prodigy called all of the teenager heroes available to fight the army of alternate Young Avengers, while the real Young Avengers took care of Mother. When the Young Avengers faced Mother, Billy tried to tap into the power of Demiurge, but failed. Once Loki freed Hulkling, Hulkling comforted Billy, and reconciliated with him. Their reunion allowed Billy to achieve his full potential, and finally destroy Mother, and get rid of the alternate Young Avengers. Celebrating Mother's defeat, the Young Avengers threw a New Years' party, along with many young heroes that had come to their rescue. New Avengers Eventually both Billy and Teddy went onto full time superheroics spotting a part on Roberto's team of New Avengers. After saving Paris from the Life-Minus epidemy by combining his powers with those of his teammates Songbird and Power Man, Wiccan and the rest of the New Avengers were at Avengers Island when a group of aliens using both Kree and Skrull technology kidnapped Hulkling, but took Wiccan with him by accident. The aliens, who called themselves the Knights of the Infinite, were Kree/Skrull hybrids, like Hulkling, and wanted to take him to their base in the Forbidden Asteroids so he could pass a test in order to see if he was truly the chosen one, which was pulling the sword Excelsior from a stone. Hulkling passed the test, and the Knights kneeled before him. When Wiccan and Hulkling were taken to the Knights' home, Castle Tarnala, they discovered the corpse of M'ryn the Magus possessed by the evil wizard Moridun. While Wiccan tried to heal the wounded, Hulkling and the Knights tried damaging Moridun, but their efforts were all in vain. The creature soon absorbed enough power to grow in size and destroyed the castle from the inside out. Soon afterwards, the rest of the New Avengers showed up and joined the brawl against Moridun, to no avail. Wiccan tried to use his powers to defeat Moridun, but failed and ended up hurt. While protecting Wiccan, Hulkling accidentally absorbed an energy blast from Moridun with Excelsior, and realized he could use it against the evil wizard. The New Avengers distracted Moridun long enough to allow Hulkling to stab him in the face, seemingly killing the creature. Once the dust settled, Billy decided it was time to change his codename and chose Demiurge as his new one. However, unbeknownst to everyone, Moridun had managed to infect Wiccan, and remain inside his mind as sort of a subconsciousness. | Powers = Wiccan has a wide range of superpowers, derived from an unconfirmed source. His origins make it possible Wiccan is both Mage and mutant. His abilities were first triggered when the Scarlet Witch (under the influence of the Life Force) used her powers to heal him. However, even accepting that Wiccan is the reincarnated son of the Scarlet Witch, where exactly his powers come from is unclear. If his was purely a spiritual reincarnation, then he would not necessarily inherit his mother's mutant genes. Recent questions about the Scarlet Witch's parentage make it even less certain she had an X-gene to pass on. Wiccan's power might also be a purely mystical birthright, or derived from Wanda's status as a nexus being. Wiccan's destiny as the next Demiurge resembles the fate that the Time Keepers worried about if Wanda ever had children. Wiccan has demonstrated the following powers: *'Reality Warping:' Wiccan's main power is the superhuman ability to manipulate magical forces and warp reality, which he inherited from his mother the Scarlet Witch. Wiccan uses his magic through a unique form of self-taught spell casting involving stating repeatedly an effect or action he wants to happen (i.e. "I want him to be OK, I want him to be OK!," or "Groundintogluegroundintogluegroundintoglue"). Wiccan has no standard spells, with most being improvised on the spot. While generally very effective, his spells can be degraded by a lack of willingness to perform them or stress. Wiccan can use magic to enhance himself or others for short periods of time. Some notable spells being: Enhanced Strength, Sensing Locations of others, Levitation, Telepathy, Astral Projection, and Illusion Casting. **'Electrokinesis:' Can manipulate, generate and discharge energy projections as either lightning or electricity from his hands or other parts of his body. **'Teleportation:' Can teleport himself and others over undetermined distances with an untested maximum. Can also travel to and open gates or portals accessing other worlds, places and dimensions. **'Telekinesis:' Can levitate, propel and manipulate objects and matter with his mind. **'Telepathy:' Can read thoughts,broadcast and project his own thoughts in others, as well control other minds,to manipulate their thoughts, actions, memories, sense and emotions, the limit of this power is unknown. **'Healing:' Can quickly heal others through his spells (i.e. "I want to heal this man, I want to heal this man!"). However, the effectiveness of this healing can be greatly affected by his will to do it. When healing an enemy, the healing process could be considerably diminished than when healing someone he genuinely has an empathetic desire to heal. **'Flight:' Wiccan can engage in self-propelled flight without the use of vocalized spells and temporarily allow others to fly within his presence. **'Photokinesis:' Wiccan can project intense light and heat. **'Solid Energy Constructs:' Wiccan can manipulate mystical energy to create solid constructs such as disks, orbs, bursts, shields, platforms, force fields, and other projectiles or constructions. **'Concussive Force Blast:' Can generate blasts, beams, bolts and waves of mystical energy. **'Pyrokinesis:' Can generate and control fire. **'Clairvoyance:' Wiccan, with brief periods of intense concentration, can gain knowledge of a subject's location. It is notably highly difficult, though not impossible for him to locate those he is unfamiliar with, or only loosely associated with. **'Conjuring:' Wiccan can create clothing, decor, objects and food from seemingly nothing. | Abilities = | Strength = Human, able to be augmented by magic and reality manipulation. | Weaknesses = If Wiccan can't hear his spells, they don't work at all. | Equipment = | Transportation = Teleportation | Weapons = Billy previously carried a staff. | Notes = | Trivia = ]] * It was long believed that Billy and Tommy Shepherd were reincarnations of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision's twin sons, Thomas Maximoff and William Maximoff. ** Wiccan first reached this conclusion after meeting Tommy, his identical twin except for the white hair. After reviewing intelligence files from the Skrulls and Avengers about Thomas and William, Billy decided he and Tommy must be Wanda's children reincarnated. He based this on their names, appearances, Tommy's white hair and speed matching his "uncle" Pietro, and Billy's powers being similar to Wanda's. ** The Scarlet Witch finally confirmed that Billy and Tommy are indeed her reincarnated children. . ** Wiccan has only recently met his "father", Vision in . * When the Young Avengers first appeared, they deliberately tried to pattern themselves after the classic Avengers. As a result, Billy called himself "the Asgardian" and openly used his magic only for Thor-like abilities: flight and lightning-casting. Once they began acting openly with their powers, Billy changed his name to Wiccan and began using a variety of spells. * Hulkling (Teddy Altman) and Wiccan are in a romantic relationship. * Wiccan was one of the many possible candidates for the title of Sorcerer Supreme. * Wiccan pattern's himself after Thor and The Scarlet Witch. ** As Asgardian, Wiccan wore a winged helmet resembling those worn by Thor and other Asgardians. * Wiccan doesn't like the term "Warlock" being applied to him because it literally means "oath-breaker". He prefers mage, magician, witch, or spell-caster. * Allan Heinberg has stated that Billy and his family are Reform Jews as shown in: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?s=b5f4eb2f1e0d641ce9ff6cd90dfe6b5b&t=61503. When asked about Billy's codename, Heinberg stated "Wiccan is another word for witch. It doesn't have an exclusively religious meaning." ** Wicca is the name of a religion and is the basis for the word Witch. In the past, it's practitioners were often persecuted as witches. A Wiccan is a practitioner of Wicca. ** Later, Doctor Nemesis commented on a Jewish boy choosing the code-name Wiccan. *According to his teammate and boyfriend, Hulkling, Billy Kaplan learned his spell-casting abilities from a self-help book belonging to Hulkling's mother . counterparts]] *Wiccan is shown to be a member of the Initiative, along with Hulking. However, it is later revealed most of the Young Avengers did not actually join The Initiative or even register. They were registered by their Earth-A counterparts; both Wiccan and Hulking are seen complaining about being registered to their "A Selves". It's been subsequently shown that since registration, Billy has spent most of his time grounded at home with his parents pressuring him to register. * Billy is a fan of George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Fire and Ice, as well as its TV series version, Game of Thrones, and Tyrion Lannister is his favorite character. * The Sound of Music is one of Billy's favorite films. * Wiccan's email is "actualwizard666@super-mail.com". | Links = }} Category:Probability Manipulation Category:Healers Category:Force Field Category:Telekinesis Category:Telepathy Category:Teleporters Category:Astral Projection Category:Illusionists Category:Pyrokinesis Category:Photokinesis Category:Energy Manipulation Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Reality Warpers Category:Dating Characters Category:Sorcerer Supreme Candidate Category:Electrokinesis Category:Jewish Category:Flight Category:Avengers Fail-Safe Program recruit Category:Twins Category:Matter Manipulation Category:Reincarnation Category:Ultron Family Category:Maximoff Family Category:Empaths Category:Clairvoyance Category:Time Travelers Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (Registration Status Unknown) Category:Occultism Category:Post-Secret Wars Mutants Category:2005 Character Debuts